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CENTRAL AMERICA |
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Agreement Reached to End Honduran Standoff
TEGUCIGALPA – The delegations representing
ousted Honduran President Mel Zelaya and
current President Roberto Micheletti signed
an accord on Friday that both sides, as well
as the United States and Organization of
American States, have hailed as bringing an
end to a months-long political crisis.
After reaching agreement “on the pending
points, the delegates from the two
commissions have now signed the
Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord,” the OAS’
political affairs secretary, Victor Rico,
told reporters at the hotel in this capital
where the signing ceremony took place.
Rico said that after agreement was reached
Thursday night on the issue of whether or
not Zelaya would be reinstated – a matter
left to Congress to decide – negotiators on
Friday hammered out “the preamble, the final
provisions and timeline.”
“The accord will take effect as of the date
of its signing, which is today (Friday), and
over the next few days the verification
commission, to be coordinated by the OAS,
will be formed, the National Unity Cabinet
will be formed,” he said.
He said the Cabinet “should be functioning”
by next week, although he added that “there
is no deadline” for Congress’ decision on
whether or not to reinstate Zelaya.
“I’m sure the lawmakers will be fully aware
of the importance and political urgency of
these determinations and I hope they (vote)
in the shortest timeframe possible,” he
added.
“We hope all this is finalized in a
reasonably short period of time.”
The verification commission, Rico said, will
be composed of two OAS representatives, who
will coordinate the body, as well as one
delegate from each side in the Honduran
political dispute.
The two delegations went to Congress after
the accord was signed and presented the
document to that legislative body, which
will now begin preparing for the vote on
whether or not to reinstate Zelaya, who was
removed from office in a June 28 coup.
The deal signed Friday includes several
points contained in a proposal made by Costa
Rican President Oscar Arias in his role as
mediator in the crisis.
The final document encompasses all the
accords reached in talks between the two
sides since Zelaya slipped back into the
country on Sept. 21 and took refuge at the
Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, members of
both delegations said.
It calls on both sides to recognize
elections scheduled for Nov. 29 – in which
neither Zelaya nor Micheletti are eligible
to participate – and for the creation of a
truth commission, but rejects the political
amnesty that Arias had proposed to resolve
the stalemate.
Under the terms of the accord, Zelaya’s camp
also has agreed not to pursue efforts to
create a Constituent Assembly. That point
was also proposed by Arias, as it was the
president’s efforts to seek a rewrite of the
charter that had prompted the putsch.
The two sides had said last week that their
OAS-sponsored talks had collapsed, but
renewed pressure for a solution by a U.S.
delegation led by Assistant Secretary of
State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas
Shannon forced Micheletti’s delegation to
allow Congress to decide on the matter of
Zelaya’s reinstatement.
The de facto government had earlier insisted
that because the question of Zelaya’s return
to power was a constitutional matter only
the Supreme Court could decide.
The United States and the European Union had
said that they would not recognize the
winner of the November elections unless
Zelaya had been reinstated beforehand, but
Shannon indicated that with Thursday’s
agreement the United States now supports the
upcoming balloting.
“The United States will accompany Honduras
in its elections on Nov. 29,” Shannon said.
Zelaya told Radio Globo that “the mere fact
that the need to (restore the political
order of June 28, 2009) is being recognized
represents a triumph for Honduran democracy
and ... the return to peace for the
country.”
Micheletti has contended all along that
Zelaya’s ouster was not a coup, insisting
that the soldiers who dragged him from the
presidential palace and put him on a plane
to Costa Rica were simply enforcing a
Supreme Court ban on the president’s planned
non-binding plebiscite on the idea of
revising the constitution.
Though the coup leaders accuse Zelaya of
seeking to extend his stay in office, any
potential constitutional change to allow
presidential re-election would not have
taken place until well after the incumbent
stepped down.
Prior to Thursday’s agreement, Zelaya had
made numerous concessions to achieve an
accord with Micheletti, including agreeing
to preside over a national-unity government
for the balance of his term, which ends in
January.
He also had pledged to abandon the push for
a constitutional overhaul that provoked the
ire of the military, the political
establishment and the few dozen families who
dominate the Honduran economy.
Micheletti had earlier suggested that both
men step aside in favor of an interim
president, by Zelaya’s delegation to the
talks has remained steadfastly opposed to
such a solution.
Mayra Mejia, a member of the ousted
president’s camp, said last Friday that “if
the coup d’état can’t be reversed, no
democracy in Central America and Latin
America can be at ease, because (putschists)
will find an ideal, simple path: stage a
coup and whitewash it later with an
election.” EFE
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